Why are middle class older people so much more healthier than their poorer counterparts?

[Gorzf]

Sorry, if this is obvious to people but I can't help but notice all the well off people I meet in their 50s/ 60s / 70s, they're just healthy, their skin is glowing, they're fit and mobile.

I am a child of immigrants who came with nothing. We were quite poor growing up, the only kid in my friendship group on free school meals. Even as an adult I'm not particularly well off, just getting by. Growing up, most older people in my poor area / community just declined. It was almost a thing I thought was just normal, that's what happens.

It wasn't as I grew older and started meeting people from different socioeconomic status that I realised that wasn't the case.

It can't just be about having more money, surely. What is it that they're doing that the poor folk around me didn't do.

I disagree with those posters saying middle class people have less stress. They have different stress. I think it is a major issue in the UK and we need to get better at dealing with it, stopping it from being such a problem and how we treat it. The impact of stress on health can be huge, whatever your circumstances.

Google the social determinants of health op. Lots of insight into your question through various articles and research.

It is about being able to afford better food, medical treatments etc BUT there is also a cultural element.

In our naice leafy suburb you very rarely see people smoke. I know many people who used to but stopped when having children.

We’ll buy ‘fast food’ but will go for a poke bowl rather than mc donalds - for health reasons but there is also an element of not wanting to be seen feeding your DC mc donalds.

Daytime screen time is very limited, you don’t put the TV on as a background noise. I have never heard anybody discuss TV shows at the school gates. I would be ashamed if my DC was asked what they did at the weekend and answered ‘we watched tv’ so we don’t turn it on.

Walks outside are also a regular activity for a lot of families, at least once every weekend.

This is not a judgment, just a point of view as to how people with more money might make healthier choice because of culture/peer pressure.

I'd agree with this. I know far more middle class, and above, people who regularly take recreational drugs, edibles, and smoke compared with working class. They nearly all drink at social functions too (I notice because I'm the odd one out as a teetotaller).

As for the rest. I think you can have some poorer people with good skin, etc, and many will be physically active and follow good nutrition, and there's even luck of good genetics. Not meaning to be rude, but isn't it obvious OP but that less money often equals more stress, poorer quality food, lack of access to healthcare.

An easier life.

Genetics loads the gun but lifestyle pulls the trigger. So even if you have a genetic risk for illness it may not get triggered if you have an easier life with choices, money, time, personal expression and all your needs met.

Living with low income is massively stressful. You have to make serious decisions and judgements every day, every hour and it takes it's toll.

It's a million reasons.

Diet obviously, but its not diet alone. Smoking, excercise. Less physically demanding jobs and less day to day stress

More ability to excercise, holiday and do generally fun things to reduce the drudgery of life

Money to pay for hair, skin, teeth, botox.

Anecdotally I'm a dentist and if you provide someone with a decent set of dentures or decent restorative work, you can physically see them change and start glowing once their confidence is back, people will lose weight, stop smoking, start exercising. People will change massively how they take care of themselves. And vice versa if you remove a tooth and someone loses confidence their whole appearance changes and you can watch them decline. Confidence in oneself has a massive affect on a)how someone feels and b)how someone takes care of themselves. That's just one thing, but if you have money for nice clothes, nice hair, nice teeth etc then I imagine it has a cumulative affect.

Yup, this.

Better housing
Better education
Healthier lifestyles
Less likely to work in a manual job
Less likely to smoke, drink etc
More likely to follow public health advice like breastfeeding, five a day, active lifestyle
Gym membership

Add in dental check up and having a dental hygienist scrape off your plaque every 6 to 12 months - and twice daily brushing and flossing...

I assume OP’s parents are from different backgrounds - so one parent’s side is middle class, the other parent’s side is working class.

I grew up very working class in the 80s.
*We had access to the best dentist in the North, and on the NHS
*we had a nice clean council house
*we didn't have big supermarkets so food came from the butchers/fishmongers/green grocer/weekly market. We drank only milk or water
*we played out. We were never in!
*Our parents didn't work weekends, they (normally dad) would have us out with him on our bikes every single Sunday for must of the day, with packed lunch. (We grew up near lots of lovely places of interest)

• we didn't have a holiday during summer hols, but had access to a playscheme which ran everyday during the hols specifically for poorer households. They took us rollerskating, swimming, museums etc. *neither parents smoked or drank *we had a bit more of a community in times of stress, helpful neighbours(especially during miner strikes) and family nearby.

I have to thank both parents for a great start in life, and we were lucky to grow up in the 80s, I don't think we'd have had this start growing up now.

*My mum is out with her walking group now (in the rain!). She looks a decade younger and has never been overweight. Dad sadly passed away in his late 40s (aneurysm).

We're sometimes teasingly laughed at for what we eat, for the educational activities, for the types of holidays (hiking or museums etc boring, skiing wanky etc).

Argh, that would drive me nuts. Do you say anything to them?

@Mrsfussypants1 there certainly seems to have been far more support and opportunities for WC families in the 80s/90s vs today. My parents had significant mental health problems but I related to a lot of what you said. I benefited from free full orthodontics treatment in the 90s, years of braces etc., 6-monthly checkups and treatment all free on the NHS. There's no way my parents could have afforded even one checkup.

We played out a lot as well, and made the most of free summer sports schemes nearby.

Cheap cuts of meat, healthy food etc. was more available it seems and easier to source.

My paternal family are very long lived and have working class jobs (tenant farmers). My dad is 76 and the only health issues he has had are mild angina and a hip replacement (happens to all farmers). His dad as the same up to his death at the age of 95.

A lot of it is genetic good luck. Some of it is lifestyle - non smokers, moderate drinkers, eat fresh good food (heavy on fish, fruit and veg), lots and lots of exercise - well in to old age, very sociable.

I am similarly in good health so far in my mid forties. Low cholesterol, low blood pressure (both genetic), no health issues or illnesses, resting heart rate of 61.

BUT I am also middle class and fairly well paid- which means - i have a fair amount of control over my working life, I can afford good fresh food and time to cook it, I have decent secure housing, I exercise regularly and my workplace pays for private health care and a yearly health MOT.

I think also there is a point in your forties and fifites where the choices you make or have available to you change the course of your old age.

Mr Monkey supports to a non league football club. He is in his eary fifties - he is a regular marathon runner (can run a marathon on under 3hrs 15min), non smoker, eats a mainly pescetarian diet , whippet thin - (does drink a fair bit of beer though) A lot of his age group contemporaries amongst the fans are a right state - very over weight, poor mobility, chronic health conditions - there have been a number of heart attacks and at least two deaths in that group.

I think money buys help/options to easy path though life.

My working class family do live a long time but do look old by middle age - and they eat well and are some always none smoker or ex smokers for decades.

I cant find it now but did read some research from Aus and UK where they found renters aged faster than home owners - so as housing affordability rises to hit more in middle class perhaps that will have an effect.

https://fortune.com/well/2023/10/10/renters-age-faster-than-homeowners/

IL marriage picture - MIL married at 19 her parents had her similar age - so her parents are early 40s they are stooped and dressed as "old people" - they look stereo typical old people - they lived till their mid 90s with bad health not hitting to late 80s.

So looking healthy ie probably bit younger than they are or well turned out/presented for their age and actually being so may not correlate as much as you'd expect. Though I am aware population figures do suggest higher social economic status does tend to mean longer life expectancy.

A lot of his age group contemporaries amongst the fans are a right state - very over weight, poor mobility, chronic health conditions

One danger here is to assume that being overweight, nit exercising enough etc… is at the root if the chronic health issue or the poor mobility. It is quite possible that it’s actually the other way around and it’s been ill that is the root cause of poor mobility and weight issues.
Same btw with heart attacks. Maybe it’s because they’ve ‘unhealthy lifestyle’ or maybe it’s because they’ve caught covid and that’s what triggered said heart attack. We know that people from poorer backgrounds have caught it more often because they were the ones who were out working during all the lockdowns, don’t have the possibility to wfh etc….
And ofc, there is no way your DH could exercise in that way if he was chronically ill.

Basically what I’m trying to say is that, yes all that happens . They are facts.
But there is no way you can correlate these together. And it’s dangerous to try to do so. It only feeds on stereotypes and biases imo.

I think this is more it rather than money or lack of. I'm a long term benefits user due to being a carer, and I'll be that way until either I or my ds dies. I 'look' fairly MC though, kids at a grammar school, live in a nice area, I'm really good at cooking decent meals very cheaply. I'm very happy to wait to buy things, I have zero need to have it now. I buy quality second hand clothes on ebay or charity shops. We like museums, gardens, walking etc.

I know from the (primary) school that many people with the same in one as me choose to spend it very differently. In our class it was the wealthier families who made the dc wait until Christmas to buy consoles. The FSM dc got them very close to their release (they often had them pre ordered). Their parents would have queued overnight to get a new xbox game, but wouldn't go on a walk together. I benefitted massively from my own upbringing and the values that were instilled. A lot of it is family culture. I remember one mum making fun of my phone and saying that she wouldn't be seen dead with it. That same mum sent her dc to school with no break, and they wouldn't have breakfast either. They might have a pot noodle for dinner. The mum felt they had eaten a meal in school so that was enough. But they always had the best trainers and tracksuits as soon as they were released. It's just a different mindset.

@CameleonAreFightingBack A fair-ish point - one who died did have a heart condition and I have acknowledged that genetic good fortune (or bad fortune) plays a big role in health - but most are like that mainly because they eat too much, drink too much and are very sedentary. Of course it is a vicious cycle and once the weight it on it is harder to be mobile.

My granny had severe rhematoid arthritis from her early thirties so had limited mobility but lived a long and otherwise healthy life, eventually dying of a stroke in her late eighties.

@NeverDropYourMooncup

That’s incredibly evocative and awful. I am glad things are better for you now. The level of wealth inequality in this country is a disgrace.

Paid sick leave makes a huge difference. I had it, my sister didn't. I worked in a legal practice for years, she had an assortment of hotel kitchen, chambermaid, waitress type jobs. She worked jobs where if you were there you got paid and if you weren't, you didn't. The difference between us now that we are retired is huge. She is old, I am middle aged and there is a 3 year age difference. I find myself treating her as if she were my elderly, unwell mother in the last years of her life but she was so very vibrant when we were young.

Also, not to to put too fine a point on it, she drank to excess for years and smoked until she was forced into giving up.

I'm the officially disabled sister but I'm soooo much healthier than her, so very much younger - it's frightening.

No one is suggesting that.

But the MC are better at maximising the help they can get out of the NHS, and when that’s not possible, they have a higher chance of being able to pay for it, even at a stretch.

I hear ya! I have 3 kids who throughout primary school had plenty of playdates throughout the year.

On every single one of those playdates - and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE - they were given chicken nuggets for their tea, except for the Italian families (catholic school so lots of Italians) who fed them proper food.

Another guess could be unconscious (or even conscious) bias from healthcare professionals (as well as teachers, police etc).